Ah, cue the outrage. We certainly cannot have seven (7!) year old children traipsing around in a carnival role which is being described by the media as “sexy”. I’m curious as to why it is culturally acceptable for mature females to prance around during Carnival topless but not children.
I mean, speculating from Puritan North America it would be easy to categorize the whole affair as an exercise in lewd, hyper sexual ribaldry. But is it a fair analysis? The BBC’s article weighs in:
“The Rio de Janeiro state Council for the Defence of Children and Adolescents suggested it would only “increase the treatment of children as sexual objects in Brazilian society”.
Whoa…there we go, objectifying people is bad. Whoops! Hang on…
“We’re not against kids participating in Carnival; it’s part of Brazilian culture,” the council’s director, Carlos Nicodemos, told the Associated Press (AP) news agency.
“What we can’t allow is putting a seven-year-old girl in a role that traditionally has a very sexual focus.”
Oh, I get it, it is okay to objectify older females.
But this is right out…
Hmm… her protective father says the following:
“Any man who looks at a seven-year-old girl and feels any sort of excitement should go see a doctor,” her father, Marco Lira, told AP.
Way to go Dad! People just need to realize that objectifying women starts at a later age and that putting a child in a stereotypical ‘sexy’ role is all about the dance and the carnival and not an iota of anything else.
Check.
Another victory against the Patriarchy for sure.
Update: Fire has ravaged the floats this year (2011).
bleatmop
The Intransigent One
Mystro
The Arbourist
6 comments
February 10, 2010 at 11:07 am
Moe
Leaving aside the objectifying part – this is nonsense.
Children have been performing forever – in circuses, in vaudville, on Broadway, in movies – not to mention those creepy kiddie beauty pageants, although that’s not performing. That really IS objectifying. (Remember Jon Benet Ramsey anyone?).
The kid isn’t just striding around. The kid is performing. Kids can do that. Kids do do that – all over the world.
Nonsense.
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February 10, 2010 at 1:35 pm
girl lover
“Hmmm, I disagree with the outrage.” (edited for inappropriate comments)….
This comment, if satire, is close to being unacceptable for posting on this blog. The offensive content has been removed.
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February 10, 2010 at 3:41 pm
Moe
Yuck. Go away.
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February 1, 2011 at 3:55 pm
Peter Elfvin
The queens of the drums represent Inkice Samba – a Bantu goddess of water and fertility who gave the samba to mankind.
Do you not wonder why the hypersexual costumes?
If you think it is right for a child to represent a fertility goddess then there are psych clinics nearby that may be able to help.
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March 14, 2011 at 5:05 am
Akram
Ah, but it is ok for a child to represent a Demon, an alien, a murderer, and much more in holywood and the US film industry. That is why psych clinics are thriving in the US.
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March 14, 2011 at 9:12 pm
Peter Elfvin
Only we aren’t talking about the film industry here. We are talking about What is possibly the most misreported contest in the western hemisphere. As an example, in Sao Paolo the Vai-Vai samba School won their contest by only 0.25 points. Yet in all the foreign coverage all you ever get for a photo caption is “revelers parade through Sao Paolos Sambodromo.” No mention is made of what the schools are communicating, or the symbolic significance of the various people in the parade. It is as involved a contest as figure skating and we don’t get to understand what is going on.
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